The U.S. Census Bureau today released 813 tables of Census 2000 social, economic and housing characteristics down to the block group or census tract levels for Minnesota. The detailed data will serve as benchmarks for state and local planners for the first decade of the 21st century.

"Everyone who participated in Census 2000 is to be congratulated for their unprecedented cooperation in making Census 2000 the most accurate and complete census in the history of our country," Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon said. "For years to come, we will provide lawmakers, city planners, business people and researchers with a clear demographic and socioeconomic portrait of our nation's communities. These quality data are invaluable to decision-makers in everything from putting schools where students are to getting an ambulance to the door when an emergency strikes."

The summary data released today (Summary File 3 [SF3]) are based on the responses to the 52-item census long-form questionnaire delivered to a 1-in-6 sample of 19 million households.

The 484 population tables cover such subjects as marital status, grandparents as caregivers, language and ability to speak English, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship status and year of entry, migration, place of work, commuting to work, school enrollment and educational attainment, veteran status, disability, employment status, industry, occupation, class of worker, income and poverty status.

The 329 housing tables include data on number of rooms, number of bedrooms, year moved into unit, household size and occupants per room, units in structure, year structure built, heating fuel, telephone service, plumbing and kitchen facilities, vehicles available, value of home, monthly rent and shelter costs.

Tables are available by state, county, county subdivision, place, census tract, congressional district (106th Congress) and ZIP Code tabulation area. Tables also are shown for state parts of American Indian and Alaska Native areas, metropolitan areas and urban areas (urbanized areas and urban clusters). In addition, selected tables are available by block group.

Fifty-one of the tables are repeated for nine major race and Hispanic or Latino groups: White alone; Black or African American alone; American Indian and Alaska Native alone; Asian alone; Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone; Some other race alone; Two or more races; Hispanic or Latino; and White alone, not Hispanic or Latino.

The SF3 long-form data will be released by state from August through September.

Editor's note: To access the SF3 data on the FTP server, bona fide media representatives need two sets of usernames and passwords: one to enter the embargo page, which may be obtained by faxing a request on your organization's letterhead to the Public Information Office at (301) 457-3620, and a second set posted in the embargo area.

(For more information about how to order the SF3 files on CD-ROM and DVD, contact the Census Bureau's Customer Services Center on (301) 763-INFO (4636) or e-mail: <webmaster@census.gov>. To help put the census data in local context, contact the Minnesota State Data Center on (651) 296-2939 or e-mail: <david.birkholz@mnplan.state.mn.us>.)